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Thursday, 7 June 2018

The June 12 election is considered one of the freest and fairest in Nigeria’s history. It is believed to have been won by late Moshood Abiola and his running mate Babagana Kingibe. The election was annulled before final results were officially announced. Mr Abiola was eventually jailed by the Sani Abacha military dictatorship for seeking to actualise his mandate. He died in prison in 1998.President Buhari on Wednesday decided to honour Mr Abiola by declaring June 12 as Nigeria’s new Democracy Day. It was formally May 29. The president also declared that Mr Abiola would be given Nigeria’s highest national honour, GCFR, while Mr Kingibe would be given the second highest, GCON.Coming under order 42 and 52, Biodun Olujimi (Ekiti-PDP), re-opened the issue to allow contributions. While commending Mr Buhari for the move, she wants him to do more in legalising the gesture“For once, I want to thank the President of Nigeria. I want to say he has done well. This is one time that the President has given a thought to what (Moshood) Abiola and his family went through to fight for this democracy that we enjoy today.“Going further, there are issues to be addressed so that we can be confident that this is not a Greek gift.”She prayed the Independent National Electoral Commission to announce the result of the June 12, 1983 election officially, grant entitlements to the winners, recognise Babagana Kingibe as a former vice president and the executive declare June 12 a public holiday.Mr Kingibe was running mate to Mr Abiola in the June 12, 1993 election. Mr Buhari on Wednesday announced that Mr Abiola would be conferred with Nigeria’s highest national honour, GCFR, while Mr Kingibe would be conferred with the second highest honour, GCON.

Crooked Kingibe just secured a generous pension for life There are very few highly despicable and hated Nigerian politicians than Baba-Gana Kingibe and that is saying a lot for a Nigerian politician. Now this highly degenerate individual who has crawled back into the corridors of power like a sleuthing snake that he is, is being awarded an accolade that he is in no way deserving of. But this, after all, is a Buhari govt where the Orwellian rule applies that is where saints are condemned and criminals like Abacha are celebrated so it did not surprise me that a con man like Kingibe will find a place within the very heart of Buhari's govt.This is the same Kingibe that never for once fought for the joint mandate of June 12 but rather quickly absorbed himself into the Abacha regime - the same regime that truncated that mandate. Kingibe will disappear from Nigeria immediately after Abacha's death only to lobby his way into the Yaradua administration as SGF only to be abruptly rightfully sacked by Yaradua himself. How does this new elevation of Kingibe to GCON benefit him? For one, he can go around parading himself as a former VP and also find his way to attend all future NEC meetings. But by far the best thing to accrue to Kingibe is that he gets to live out the rest of his degenerate hedonistic life at the expense of tax payers as he will now be entitled to annual pensions and perks that a retired VP enjoys.